


11.13

by T_0_d_d



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: 9/11, Gen, Implied/Referenced Terrorism, September 11 Attacks, Terrorism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:35:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22898866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/T_0_d_d/pseuds/T_0_d_d
Summary: Fred Andrews helps his son with a school project and remembers the day that changed his life, and this nation, forever.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	11.13

**November 13th Attack**

_ “11.13” redirects here. For other uses, see  _ _ 1113 _ _ and  _ _ November 13th Attacks (disambiguation) _

The  **November 13th Attack** (also referred to as  **11.13** ) was a single coordinated  [ terrorist attack ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism) by the  [ Islamic Terrorist ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_terrorism) group  [ Al-Qaeda ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda) against the [ United States Capitol ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol) in the afternoon of Tuesday, November 13th, 2001. The attack resulted in over 1,273 victim fatalities, and over 2,387 injuries , and caused at least $5 billion in infrastructure and property damage. Additional people have died of 11.13 related cancer and  [ respiratory diseases ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory_disease) in the months and years following the attacks.

One passenger [ airline ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline) operated by [a major United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines) [ passenger air carrier ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines) was hijacked by  6 Al-Qaeda terrorists . The plane, which departed from  [ Washington Dulles Airport ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Dulles_International_Airport) bound for  [ Seattle ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle) , was hijacked twenty minutes after take-off and crashed into the  United States Capitol building . Debris and fuel spillage caused massive damage to the building, surrounding structures, and [ the National Mall ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Mall) . The attack killed 97.5% of the sitting United States Congressional representatives , as well as numerous civilians working in and living around  the Capitol .

Suspicion quickly fell on  Al-Qaeda . The United States responded by launching the [ War on Terror ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_terror) and invading  [ Afghanistan  ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan) to depose the  [ Taliban ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban) , which had failed to comply with U.S. demands to extradite  [ Osama bin Laden ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden) and expel al-Qaeda  from  Afghanistan . Troops were withdrawn two months later in accordance with the  [ War Powers Resolution ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution) , as an  [ AUMF  ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorization_for_Use_of_Military_Force) had not been granted by  Congress.

The destruction of  the U.S. Capitol building and the  deaths of 522 sitting legislators greatly impacted the American democratic process. In the hours after the attack, the living legislators were evacuated to a  bunker in an unknown location , where [ Congress ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Congress) is still held to this day. A [ State of Emergency ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_emergency) was immediately instated in the [United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States) . 

In the past two decades, reports of  thwarted Al-Qaeda attacks planned to be carried out before and after 11.13 have come to light. U.S. intelligence services had gathered massive amounts of intelligence from major attack attempts before 11.13 and had reason to believe that the attack on  the Capitol  was part of a larger attack on the United States. To combat this, as soon as the State of Emergency  was declared, President Bush issued an executive order which gave the federal government control over the national  [ electrical grid ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_grid) and  [ telephone networks ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_network) .  This [executive order ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_order) also declared a  [ national curfew  ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curfew) and  police mobilization across the United States.

The  11.13 State of Emergency and  Executive Order 13223 lasted until 2010 and was in a large part responsible for the increase in  [ confederalist  ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation) and [ isolationist  ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolationism) policies in the United States. The difficulties facing Congress after the massive loss of life on 11.13 caused the American public to lose faith in their national government and representational system, favoring state governance over national law. Security became America’s top priority, leading to the formation of many state militias and the militarization of many state borders. 

Archie looked up from the computer as he heard the gravel crunching under the truck tires. Vegas jumped up from under his feet and bounded to the front door, barking. 

_ Oh no!,  _ Archie thought, _ I forgot to take the chicken out _ . He jumped off his stool and ran to the fridge, where he grabbed the two frozen chicken breasts his dad had told him to take out as soon as he got home. The front door creaked open. Fred Andrews, covered in a light layer of construction site dust, called out.

“Arch? You here?”

“Yup!” Archie peaked around the corner as he blasted hot water on to the chicken breasts in the sink. “Just getting started on dinner!”

Fred took off his boots and loped into the kitchen. 

“What are you doing with these chicken breasts?” He picked one up and thumped it, rock hard, against the sink.

“I don’t know why they didn’t thaw on time, I took them out right when I came home! I think it’s because of the hard water.”

Fred chuckled to himself and put the chicken back in the fridge. He was proud that he had raised a terrible liar.

“Don’t worry about it, son. We can go to Pop’s tonight, it’s been a long day. How was school?”

“Uh, it was good. I have some questions I have to ask you though…”

“What about?”

“We have to share a memory from 11.13 with the class tomorrow, for the anniversary.”

Fred nodded. The radio had been playing “Sweet Home Alabama” and “God Bless the USA” on his drive back from the site. The station must have been preparing for the memorial services tomorrow. 

“Let’s talk about it at Pop’s. I’ve gotta get changed.” Fred Andrews walked upstairs, leaving Archie and Vegas in the kitchen. He could hear Archie rattling out Vegas’ dinner into the food bowl. Fred rounded the corner into his bedroom, feeling a rush of warm evening air through the open window. The air hadn’t been warm like that 20 years ago, on that day, Fred thought. It had been cold enough that they had had to rush construction to avoid the frost. He shook the thoughts away, not wanting to get too bogged down in old memories. Digging in his dresser drawers he grabbed some clean clothes, and changed, washing to the dust off his face and hair. Looking in the bathroom mirror he was struck by the lines in his face. Fred Andrews remembered how much younger he had been back then. Before the divorce, before Archie, before the world changed so much.

Back downstairs, Archie was pulling on his varsity jacket. He grabbed the truck keys off the hook next to the door.

“You mind if I drive, Dad?” He smiled excitedly.

Fred grabbed a light jacket from the closet. “Go ahead, Arch”.

Archie backed the truck out of the driveway, the wheels crunching over the fall leaves. Although he had gotten his license a few months ago, Fred still kept a careful eye on Archie’s driving. He was still a kid, still a little rash and excitable. He needed some guidance, and Fred wanted to be there for him. 

“Slow down a little, I saw a cop up here earlier.” He cautioned.

Fred felt his son step off the gas, the truck gradually shifting into a low gear. They whizzed by the cop car, still waiting, and Fred waved. The officer nodded back. 

“That’s one thing that’s changed, you know? Since 11.13.”

“Yeah, we were talking about that! I can’t believe Riverdale used to have less cops. I feel like we need all the protection we can get. Wasn’t it scary back then? Before we started hiring more cops and state troopers and stuff?”

Fred looked out at the brown-orange landscape and sighed.

“It was different. It wasn’t scary, not before 11.13. No, we felt really protected actually. In the months before the attack, there would be all these reports that big terrorist attempts were being busted by the FBI and CIA. We were doing great, as a country. We were protecting ourselves and we were protecting the world.”

“So...why weren’t we able to bust the 11.13 attack then?”

“Dunno, you’d have to ask a defense expert or something. I know Al-Qaeda had tried a similar attack a few months earlier, but it failed. Maybe we didn’t think they would try the same thing twice.”

The truck pulled into Pop’s parking lot. It was still early, before the dinner rush, and Pop was wiping down a table when the doorbell tinkled, marking their entrance. 

“How’s it going, Andrews?” Pop said, clapping Archie on the back.

“Not bad, not bad at all!” Archie laughed back.

“It’ll be just the two of us.” Fred smiled at Pop.

They slid into their favorite booth, the one three tables down from the door, with the best view of the tv that was always on the sports channel. A waitress came by and took their orders. When she left, Fred turned to his son.

“So what do you need to know for your class, Arch?”

“Oh, yeah! We’re supposed to ask you what you remember about that day. Like, what you were doing and stuff.”

“Ok.” Fred nodded and sipped his water. “Well, the attack didn’t happen till the afternoon, but I remember the morning feeling...I don’t know...weird. I was working on a site, we were putting in the new foundation to the Five Seasons, actually. The past few days we had had to get up really early, we were trying to pull double time because the frost was gonna come soon and mess up the construction. We had been digging all morning and worked through lunch. Finally, we got to a stopping point, and I was gonna take the boys all out to grab some food. So we piled in the truck, and I turned on the radio, you know, the country station, but it was silent, all silent, just some weird background noise I thought was static.”

Archie, who had been fiddling with the salt and pepper shakers on the table, stopped and looked up at his dad.

“I thought something was wrong with the radio”, Fred continued, " and Judd was about to open the damn thing up with a screwdriver when finally this voice comes on the radio and it says ‘Yeah, it’s all on fire, the whole building.’ Then there was this high pitched noise, it was someone screaming, just screaming running, I guess from the Capitol building. Then the DJ cuts the call, and is like “for those of you just tuning in, there, uh, there seems to have been an accident. There is a, uh, we are getting reports that there’s, uh, a plane that crashed at high speeds into the Capitol building. No deaths or injuries have yet to be reported but…’ and he trailed off. I remember he said those exact words, Arch.” Fred looked up at his son.

“Wow, Dad. That’s crazy.” Archie met his father’s eyes for just a second, then looked out the window, across the parking lot.

“Yeah. We were all real quiet. We didn’t end up going to lunch, we drove back to the site, and asked the rest of the boys if they had heard about it. We all ended up huddling around the little tv in the trailer for the next few hours. It was terrible, they had footage all around the Capitol, and the National Lawn, it was all on fire! Jet fuel everywhere, and they tried to cut out when there was an injured person on the screen, but sometimes you could tell, the camera person didn’t notice them, but you, sitting there, you did, and then the camera would shake a little, you could tell he had noticed them, and then you could hear him call out for a medic, and the camera would cut. It was horrible. But then, we all still thought it was an accident. It wasn’t till later we found out it was an attack. Not till that night.”

“So you went through the whole rest of the day thinking it was an accident? Just a crazy, messed-up accident?” Archie sipped his milkshake.

“Yeah. I mean, the boys and I started talking, we had our suspicions, but it’s one thing to talk about this stuff with your guys, you know, and a whole different thing for your president to come on screen and say we’ve been a victim of a terrorist attack. Thank you!” Fred smiled up at the waitress as she set down his greasy burger in front of him.

“How did you feel about it?” Archie said, stealing a fry.

“When I found out it was a terror attack, you mean? I...I was angry, Archie. I was so damn angry. I remember I didn’t want to admit it, but I was scared that night. Really, I was. I invited FP over, and we started talking, drinking, then the president came on, and said it was an attack. I got so angry. Later, me and FP got into an argument about, I don’t remember, some stupid little thing, and next thing you know, I’m on the lawn swinging punches at the guy!”

Archie laughed.

“But after, we were sitting there, tired as dogs, talking again, and FP says ‘I’m gonna join up’. I laughed at that, FP Jones, in the army? But he went and did it. Hell, I almost did.”

“Really, Dad? You almost joined the military?”

“Yeah. You gotta understand, Arch, we were all so angry at that time. We all wanted to do something about it, fight back! But in the end, I realized I couldn’t leave Riverdale. It was home, and I didn’t want to lose everything I loved because I wanted to protect it so badly. I stayed. And I’m glad I did because that’s how you came along.”

The doorbell rang again. Fred looked up at the new arrivals.

“Well, well, well, speak of the devil, and his son shall appear, I guess! Jughead, Betty, come on over, let me buy you a milkshake!” he called out

Archie’s friends walked over. 

“Oh, you really don’t have to Mr. Andrews!” Betty smiled sweetly.

“No, no, my pleasure, come on, sit down, I was just talking to Archie about your dad, actually, Jughead.”

The couple slid into the booth with the two Andrews. 

“And what about him?” Jughead sneered.

“How he joined up. After 11.13.” Archie prompted.

“Oh yeah, that, he always goes and says he joined up outta patriotism or whatever, but that’s not the truth. He was itching for a way out of the mess he made in Riverdale. He only ended up overseas for two months or whatever anyway. He’s not some kind of hero.”

“Oh come on, Jughead. I know you and your dad aren’t on great terms, and I don’t blame you, but, you can give the man a little respect. He was serving our country when it needed us the most.”

“It didn’t though! The military was turning people away a week after 11.13!” Jughead exclaimed.

Betty interrupted, “So this is for class, Archie?”

“Yeah, we have to share an 11.13 memory with the class tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I know, Archie, we’re in the same class. It’ll be interesting to hear them all tomorrow, though. I know Cheryl’s will be intense, she had an uncle or a cousin or something there, at the Capitol, he was a maple sugar lobbyist.”

Fred leaned back and watched the kids chat for a while. It was amazing that they could talk about it like this, so casually, with none of the emotion of that day tied up in it. Hell, they had no reason to feel any way about it, most of them weren’t even conceived when the attacks happened, and these kids had lived their entire lives during the consequences of it. Back when Fred was a kid, the legislative branch of this country wasn’t hidden away on a blacksite, far removed from its constituents. These kids, Archie, Betty, Jughead, the rest, they had all grown up in a totally different world than him. For them, a road trip meant packing your passports so you can get across the militarized state lines, and visiting a friend in another town meant looking up the local anti-terrorism curfew times. For them, that was normal.

Fred stared out the window. The sun was setting fast, every day Fred noticed it setting earlier and earlier as they got closer to December. He had been on this earth for many years now, but every fall, winter’s slow creep into their lives filled him with cold, inescapable dread. At least winter wasn’t so cold anymore.

“Archiekins! What are you all doing here!” Veronica skipped over to the table, her parents trailing behind.

“Veronica!” Archie smiled up at her. “What are you doing here?” 

“I’m eating dinner. It’s a restaurant, Archie. We’re at a restaurant.”

Hiram and Hermione Lodge approached Fred Andrews.

“Hermione, Hiram, how’re you doing? Good to see you.” Fred nodded to them.

“We’re doing wonderfully, Fred. Everything going well down at the site?” Hermione lilted. 

“Yup, everything is on track. Should be done by December, as planned.”

“That’s wonderful to hear, Mr. Andrews,” Hiram sighed, “Don’t let us hold your meal up on Veronica’s account... _ Mija _ ?” Hiram made a pointed look at Veronica, who gave one right back at him from inside her gaggle of friends.

“Just a sec Daddy, I’ve got to finish this story!”

Hiram sighed once more and turned back to his wife and Fred. “Sorry about her, we’re just taking her out for dinner one last time before we go on a little vacation next week.”

“Oh? Where to?” Fred politely queried.

“Majorca. It’ll be our 20th wedding anniversary next week.” Hermione gazed into her husband’s deep brown eyes.

“Wow, twenty years…” Fred trailed off.

“It’s a long time ago, I know. It seems unreal how young we were then.” Hiram commented.

“And impulsive! We weren’t supposed to get married till summer, but, you know, everything was so up in the air after 11.13…” Hermione said.

“Yeah, yeah, it sure was.” Fred zoned back into reality, realizing he had let his mind wander.

“Ok, Daddy! Let’s go.” Veronica strutted off with her parents, leaving Archie, Betty, and Jughead to laugh at whatever piece of juicy gossip she had relayed. 

The parking lot lights flicked on in the newly fallen darkness, and the electricity in the restaurant wavered for just half a second. It was a gentle reminder of the post-11.13 electricity consumption limits imposed on American small towns, like Riverdale, supposedly in order to keep a steady flow of electricity to emergency services, in case of another attack. Fred thought about interrupting the teenager’s conversation to mention it, realizing they had probably never thought about the little flickers like that, but ultimately, he decided against it. They were having fun like kids are supposed to have. Too often the teens of Riverdale seemed to be dealing with grown-up issues and problems left over from previous generations. It seemed to Fred like every day these kids were talking about gangs, or drugs, or murder. It made him happy to see them talking about something inane for once. That’s all he ever remembered high school being about. Fred Andrews let them talk. He knew that tomorrow morning, they would come to understand why their world was the way it was.


End file.
